


wanted: rmate w/ a view

by tvxq



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: M/M, Summer AU, changmin is compared to a puppy nearly seven thousand times, exceedingly self indulgent, housemate au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 12:44:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8208454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvxq/pseuds/tvxq
Summary: summer’s never anything special, but yunho adapts. or adopts. or both.





	

**Author's Note:**

> • warnings for drinking, swearing, pining etc.

“you have to sublease for the summer hyung.” the look on donghae’s face is pitiful. yunho looks at the broken mess that is his kitchen. there’s a capsicum melted into the stove. _melted._

“i didn’t _mean_ to blow it up.” he offers helplessly. donghae pats him on the shoulder, eyes closed in fake sincerity.

“i know hyung, i know.”

 

○

 

there’s a boy on his doorstep, auburn hair and ears that stick out and legs that go on for days. cheekbones that could bend light, a strong jaw, big lips - and they’re stuck out in a pout. yunho's literally seconds away from texting ryeowook. _hey i’ve found a human puppy_ , he nearly texts, _can i keep him?_

“are you jung yunho-ssi?” the puppy asks, looking up as soon as he looks up. yunho, sufficiently flustered, too busy considering the legalities of adopting a person, splutters.

“um-yeah- _hi_.” he manages. donghae would probably hit him.

the puppy gives him a curious look, through loose bangs. “i’m here about the sublease?” he says, sounding all too unsure and yunho might not have to consider adoption after all.

 

○

 

yunho’s babbling the entire way up, up the stairs, when he shows the puppy the spare room, the lounge room, the kitchen, still half in disrepair. the puppy’s eyes widen, and yunho gives him a nervous look.

“i can’t cook,” he supplies, in some form of an explanation. “it’s why i’m subleasing.”

the puppy looks at the kitchen and then he looks at yunho and there’s a hard line of his brows.

“my best friend blew up a rice cooker the other week. so our holiday house is busted. so i’m kinda desperate.” the puppy shrugs helplessly, and yunho can’t help but melt.

“rent’s cheap, electricity and water is covered - all the furniture in the spare room is yours.” yunho adds, and he’s definitely not trying to sell this, not at all, there’s no way he wants to adopt the puppy, not at all.

yunho grins, when the puppy nods, and he has to resist the inane urge to pull the taller boy in for a hug when they shake hands.

 

○

 

the puppy has a name, yunho discovers. shim changmin, and he doesn’t smile very often, but, when he does, he smiles like the human embodiment of the actual _sun._

 

○

 

changmin moves in three days later. his belongings include a tiny samsonite bag and one of those trendy herschel backpacks and…”is that a playstation?” yunho blurts. changmin looks like a deer in the headlights, clutching the ps2 to his chest.

“ _yeah_ -“ he says, weak, shy, and mainly exhausted, and they spend the rest of the silently on the sofa, changmin’s things a pile in the doorway. yunho discovers, after endless hours of playing, that changmin is very, very good at kingdom hearts.

 

○

 

yunho forgets to give him a key. a summer rainstorm hits the coastline for a couple of days, and yunho’s wandering back from football with donghae and joonmyun before he catches sight of the puppy at his doorstep, again.

“oh my _god_.” he says, when he realises that he’s fucked up. changmin’s covered in rain, but he manages a tight look when yunho arrives. “i’m so, so sorry.” yunho repeats, over and over. like a record stuck on repeat.

changmin looks…mad, but then again, he always does. he has the sulky look of teenage-angst splattered all over him, and he spends too much time indoors with his headphones in and yunho is so, so enamoured.

“it’s fine, yunho-ssi.” changmin manages, gritting his teeth. yunho feels so, so bad.

“i’m so sorry.” he keeps saying, even as he unlocks the door and lets changmin inside hands him a towel and hovers, hands shaking a little as changmin wanders back to close the spare room door and sink back into quiet.

“it’s really fine yunho-ssi.” changmin says, and he doesn’t smile, not really, but he closes the door and yunho slinks down onto the sofa and keeps his head in his hands and tries not to pine.

 

○

 

aside from their first night together, changmin spends most of his time in his room. which. doesn’t bother yunho. not at all. he has…stuff. to do.

like. donghae stuff.

“you look distraught.” donghae says, nose wrinkling. kicks the football over to yunho and it whacks him on the ankle. yunho barely registers it before donghae rolls his eyes and saunters over.

“you look like a cat when somebody soaks it in water.” donghae tells him, handing him a water bottle sullenly.

yunho sniffles, and wipes his nose. tries to think about how his roommate hates him. “thanks.” he tells donghae, not really listening, and he’s rewarded with a football to the chest, next.

 

○

 

changmin doesn’t really wake up until 12pm. yunho has no idea what to do about this.

and then, one morning, he’s watching a youtube video on how to make pancakes ( _without blowing a kitchen up_ ) and thinks…that this isn’t that hard. with changmin’s rent, paying for kitchen repairs is a breeze, and there’s a brilliant new cooktop for yunho to ruin.

he’s flipping the first pancake when footsteps shuffle out of the spare room and changmin, wrapped in yunho’s spare comforter wrinkles his nose.

“food.” changmin grumbles, as soon as he smells it, and yunho gives him a sunshine smile and puts the pancake on a plate. slides it across the bench top right into changmin’s hands and waits.

changmin smothers it in maple syrup and devours the entire thing in next to three seconds. yunho tries not to gape as changmin holds out his plate and his eyes are all wide and yunho thinks oh, puppy, and stands still.

“one more.” changmin says, wiping his mouth. he blinks, and his eyelashes sing against the sunlight. hair everywhere, changmin looks like something out of a horror movie, but, in a cute, puppydog way that makes yunho nearly lean over the counter, coo, and ruffle his hair. “please. yunho-ssi.” changmin corrects himself, throat hoarse with sleep.

yunho gives him a bright grin and doesn’t really care that changmin’s too moody to smile back.

“call me hyung." yunho says, pouring another pancake into the pan. he pretends he doesn’t smile for the rest of the day, when changmin gives him a meek ‘ _okay hyung_ ’ and proceeds to fall asleep face first on the table.

 

○

 

changmin, with his sky smile and long, fluttering eyelashes, lands a summer job nearly instantly. three nights a week at the beach, a stone’s throw from yunho’s apartment, as a lifeguard, where his friend works. he tells yunho, over a bowl of takeout, that he usually comes down from the city every summer, just to relax, but this year, he’s taking transfer summer classes and trying to get extra credit for next year.

“what courses are you taking?” yunho asks, pleasantly surprised. changmin gives him an inquisitive look, playing with his chopsticks.

“uhh…biochem and physics? why?”

yunho grins, mouth full of gopchang. it’s a hot look, he hopes. “no reason.” he says.

 

○

 

“i didn’t know you liked science.” changmin says, eyes wide. _puppy_ , yunho thinks, as he slides into the seat beside him, thumbing the dog ear of his old high school physics textbook.

“extra credit.” yunho says, shrugging mildly. he’s trying to hide a grin, really. changmin gives him a once over, before his face splits in a smile, and yunho thinks about the laws of mass related to changing states of matter due to exceedingly breathtaking smiles, and all that.

 

○

 

“hyung, you’re so bad at science.” changmin tells him, huffing. yunho looks over the equations dotted across his page in glitter pen and frowns.

“what am i doing wrong?” he asks, because, he is taking the course to learn something, and extra credit does matter to him, despite popular opinions surrounding yunho’s willingness to go back to summer college in order to spend more time with changmin.

changmin pulls his book over and sighs. “ _everything_ hyung, everything.”

 

○

 

yunho drops the physics course two weeks in.

mainly because the math is so, so hard, and he’d majored in dance and helped out in media club and math was just so, so hard. changmin doesn’t take it to heart, grumbling over his excessive pile of notes spread out in the living room.

“science isn’t for everyone,” changmin tells him gently, but, yunho kinda really wants science to be for him, because changmin gets all excited reading articles about newton’s law and ionic thrusters and babbles about stars and velocity over dinner when yunho asks him how school’s going.

he sighs. “yeah.” he says, and the physics textbook goes back under the bed. hopefully, it might stay there.

 

○

 

changmin works on monday and tuesday, spends the afternoons on the beach, beaming at noonas with his blinding smile and whatever other nonsense makes yunho irrationally upset. changmin attends a campus lecture twice a week on a thursday and the rest - changmin spends away.

it’s not… _normal_ , to be attached. but. yunho is. not so much attached so much as infatuated. two weeks into their cohabitation and there’s patterns. changmin, on the phone to somebody called ‘kyu’ fucking sniggering, and then leaning over to tell yunho’s he’d be back in the morning, pretty little laugh flying out of the apartment.

yunho digs his fingers into the side of the sofa and turns on the ps2, resolute on not letting things get to him.

he goes out in the morning for a run, comes home covered in sweat to changmin at the table, a quiet little smile on his lips as soon as he sees yunho. hair haphazardly everywhere, changmin looks like he always does, anywhere before midday. trashed.

“hyung.” he croaks, and yunho kinda just forgives him on the spot, then and there resolves to dedicate his entire existence to shim changmin which isn’t weird or obsessive or overbearing at all and- “can you make me some pancakes?” changmin asks, and no’s not really a word in yunho’s vocabulary, right now. or ever

 

○

 

yunho’s grocery shopping when his phone rings. he’d gotten changmin’s kkt somewhere in between then and now, under the premise of ‘ _what if you set the kitchen on fire?_ ’ and changmin’s bored snort of ‘ _i’m not you, hyung_ ,’

still.

 _hyung_ , changmin’s texted. _i think i blew something up???_

yunho gives the checkout noona a tiny smile before he drops his entire everything and sprints home.

he’s breathless when he reaches the door, and he breaks in imagining all kinds of horrible things, like changmin, injured, or something, but no, there’s smoke and stuff and everything smells like bad,bad,bad and yunho comes bursting around the corner, concern like some hurricane in his chest he can’t seem to quell.

“changmin?” he says. “changmin?”

changmin’s on the balcony, and he’s looking at yunho’s rice cooker, blackened to pieces. yunho hasn’t ever used it before, since it’s about eight hundred years old and he found it here when he moved in and changmin turns to look at him with big, wide, puppy dog eyes and he can’t think of what to say.

“hyung i’m so sorry—“ he starts, and all yunho can think is, i’m just glad you’re okay, and he grins like an idiot and tells changmin that it’s fine and they take turns spraying the house out with aerosol and changmin laughs into the back of his hand when yunho kicks the cooker off of the balcony and they both carry it to the trash and they’re pretty much inseparable, after that.

 

○

 

it takes a month before changmin meets anybody of yunho’s friends. it’s probably for the best, and, by all accounts, inevitable, because donghae and ryeowook keep asking about the ‘bachelor pad’ and a stupid, ugly party they want to throw.

he’s nearly tempted, for a second, and then he thinks about getting smashed in the living room while changmin studies quietly in his bedroom and his eyebrows instantly furrow without his permission.

“i don’t think that’s a good idea.” he says, simply. donghae looks distraught.

“what’s the problem.” ryeowook sulks, looking small and mousy and exhausted. he leans his head on jongwoon’s shoulder and sulks some more. yunho shrugs, in faux apology, and donghae kinda realises and gives yunho this look.

“you subleased-“ he realises. “you have a _roommate_ -“

yunho scowls. “you’re still _not_ coming over.” he snaps, but donghae’s already on his feet with a stupid grin, ripping his phone out of his pockets to call eunhyuk and giggle and jongwoon takes ryeowook’s hand and giggles back and yunho fucking sprints after them, a million angry words stuck down the back of his throat.

 

○

 

“changmin-ah.” yunho pants helplessly, when he reaches home. “i’m sorry-“ he says, but there’s nothing else to be said when he wanders into the kitchen to see changmin being absolutely coddled by both donghae and eunhyuk.

“ _donghae_.“ yunho snaps, because it’s not like he wants to keep changmin to himself, not at all. yunho dreads inviting his people over for the subsequent weeks. summer with changmin is…quiet. slow, easy, taking turns on the playstation and yunho laughing until his ribs hurt.

people shatter their summer privacy anyway.

“yunho~” donghae coos, “why’d you never let me meet your roommate before?” changmin looks vaguely uncomfortable, and if it wasn’t for yunho’s staggeringly excellent self control, he’d narrow his eyes and say ‘uh, maybe because changmin’s _mine_ ’.

“hands off.” yunho says instead, looking changmin in the eyes and trying to apologise in every known language for the split second they make eye contact. donghae backs away, a little, but he’s got a shit eating grin on his face and changmin gives yunho a quiet look.

“it’s cool hyung. these are your friends, right?” changmin wonders, sounding bored and totally untouchable and so utterly changmin it’s disarming.

they’re introduced one by one and then food is ordered and soju is drunk and yunho kicks everybody out after a bit because he’s tired, and this is _his_ puppy and changmin curls up next to yunho on the couch and gives him this dazed little smile. yunho’s irrationally placed jealousy sorta just shifts, then.

“that was fun.” changmin yawns, looking ten seconds from falling asleep.

yunho looks at changmin’s face and forgets he’s still drunk. “just don’t-“ he says. “don’t like them more then me.” he says lamely, and changmin giggles.

“hyung, that’s a stupid thing to say.” changmin huffs, slurring, and yunho thinks if he remembered anything when he woke up, he’d try to remember the way changmin’s lips curled at the corners when he spoke.

he shuffles closer, burying his face in yunho’s shoulder, huffing. “don’t worry hyung, you’re still my favourite.”

 

○

 

yunho reasons, that if changmin is submit to yunho’s horrific excuse for friends, he gets to meet changmin’s. it takes begging and cajoling and so, so many pancakes, but changmin’s best friend kyuhyun comes around for dinner on a friday and ruffles changmin’s hair with a big stupid smile.

yunho doesn’t know wether to hate him or not.

changmin certainly pretends to.

“i hate you, shut up.” he tells kyuhyun, when he’s relaying embarrassing stories of changmin tripping over sandcastles on lifeguard duty, and yunho ends up laughing so hard his stomach hurts.

their takeout arrives, in plastic containers, and kyuhyun tells changmin he has the best hyung when yunho pays for the lot. really, all he eats is bulgogi and rice these days, when he’s not cooking pancakes for changmin, so it’s dinner.

“how come you got so much meat?” yunho whines, snapping his chopsticks. he hovers over the beef in changmin’s bowl while kyuhyun’s eyes widen.

“changmin doesn’t share food with _anybody_ -“ kyuhyun warns, eyeing yunho’s expecting glance at the food. he retracts his chopsticks quickly with a little ‘ _oh_ ’ and changmin exhales.

slides half of his hanwoo over onto yunho’s plate with a little sigh. he sends kyuhyun a withering look over the table, in reply, and yunho tries hard not to think about the way kyuhyun’s mouth hangs open in surprise.

 

○

 

it storms, one night. yunho's half asleep when a crack of thunder slams past the ocean and sends the house shivering. dazed, he stands up and pulls himself out of his bedroom and into the kitchen.

halfway through pouring a glass of water, does yunho register a flash of lightening and then a tiny, imperceptible whimper from the hallway.

the wind howls, and yunho steps carefully to the spare room. the door creaks open, and yunho nearly hits himself for forgetting to knock, but, changmin’s pulled all of the covers off of the bed, the window locked closed and the blinds pushed together. hurriedly, by the looks of things.

a low whimper and then nothing, and yunho glances around the room with worry curling low in his chest.

"changmin-ah." he says, softly, into the darkness

the duvets ruffle, and yunho finally registers the lump of blankets in the corner. changmin. his heart twists, then and changmin pushes a quilt out of his eyes.

"hyung?" he asks, throat thick and voice hoarse. yunho staggers into the bedroom.

"changmin-ah," he repeats, just as quiet.

"i don't-" changmin grits out. " _like_ thunderstorms."

there's another clap of thunder, and changmin's shaking in the corner. he lets out another low whine as the sky explodes.

"hyung." he manages, gasping. yunho thinks about how the window in his room is significantly small then the spare; and how his futon has enough space for the pair of them.

"changminnie." yunho whispers, holding out his hands. "come on." he says, "hyung's got you."

something in changmin seems to break, and he's staggering to his feet and bringing blankets with him and clinging onto yunho for dear life.

"oh god." changmin yelps, as the thunder claps again, and yunho drags a hand down his shoulder blades, across his spine. he can feel changmin's breath on his neck, heartbeat racing.

yunho leads them both back to his room, closing the door. changmin's eyes screwed closed, he inhales a shuddering breath, and has to be quietly coaxed down.

“hey, shh.” yunho murmurs, and changmin pales.

"what did you call me?" he asks, voice shaking. "before."

"changminnie." yunho says, again. the word forces changmin closer, clinging to yunho. "changminnie." yunho repeats, dragging a hand through his hair. tangling his fingers in it. " _changminnie_."

slowly, changmin melts. falls apart and sinks down into the pillows, fumbling for yunho, he exhales.

"go to sleep." yunho whispers, finally, and the rain batters against the window and his hold on changmin tightens, for a second.

 

○

 

yunho expects things to change, after that. it’s all…still the same. changmin still complains about having to wake up, still sits next to yunho on the bus home from campus and laughs at him when he can’t understand basic chemistry.

still nags when their dishes stack up and lies around without a shirt on when it heats up. it’s all just the same. changmin’s shirtless on the sofa, and yunho’s not staring when he whacks changmin on the ankle, not at all.

“come on, hyung’s taking you swimming.” yunho says brightly. changmin lowers his sunglasses and glares. he looks so hot he might explode, and if there’s something changmin hates more then waking up early, it’s the heat.

“go away.” changmin whines. “it’s too hot to move.” he complains, and yunho grins, tugging him up happily.

“come on changminnie~” he sighs, breathless. “beach.” he says, and changmin looks torn between attacking him and going back to sleep. he does neither, grumbling in reply and getting up.

“fine, but you better buy me ice cream.” he says, and yunho’s face splits in a grin.

“hyung will get you ten.” he says, excited, and there’s a dumb little smile tugging at the edge of changmin’s lips when they leave the house.

 

○

 

yunho’s wearing swimming goggles while he cuts onions. changmin announces his arrival with a weird noise that’s half exhaustion and mainly relief. he’s all wet from lifeguarding - or whatever, and unlike yunho, does not track sand on the carpet. he wishes, some days, that changmin wasn’t so heart wrenchingly perfect.

“hey hyung.” he says, breathless, and there’s a drop of water running down his neck that’s so, so unfair and uninvited and yunho nearly slices his finger off.

“are you cooking?” changmin asks, “hyung _no_ ,” he says, swatting yunho.

“i wanted to cook you ramen-“ yunho objects, stuttering. he’s pushed out of the kitchen with a huff and changmin sends him a look and yunho, defeated, lets changmin make them dinner with nothing on but a pair of fucking board shorts and he still has his swimming goggles on while he sulks at the table.

changmin serves their food a few minutes later and pokes yunho’s goggles with a chopstick. he’s grinning unevenly and yunho can see all 36 of his teeth, in a smile that pretty much puts the sun out of a job, really. when changmin asks how his day went, yunho pretends his heart doesn’t scream in his ears when changmin looks up at him like he’s someone worth knowing everything about.

 

○

 

 _i’d trade a lifetimes worth of bagels away to keep you_ , yunho thinks, one day, when changmin’s overdosing on yunho’s cereal and complaining about exams and things and yunho doesn’t even care about extra credit he doesn’t need, he just likes the way that changmin stays up late to dot little notes across his textbook and how he lets yunho run his fingers through his hair while he studies.

changmin peers at him for a second, half curious half tired, through messy tangled bangs, and he frowns.

“something on my face?” he wonders, and yunho grins.

“nothing changminnie.” he says, still smiling, and changmin looks incredulously confused, like there’s some kind of inside joke he hasn’t been let in on. he presses a hand to his cheek and huffs, glasses slipping down his nose as he goes back to studying.

 

○

 

changmin’s midterms hit, and it’s a mess of the air being too hot, too sticky, yunho’s too messy and changmin’s too stressed and it’s all a bit loud explosion of “hyung, please, i know you’re trying to help, but shut the fuck up and make me pancakes.”

yunho does what he’s told. brings pancakes. leaves them on the table like a peace offering and doesn’t ruffle changmin’s hair.

“i’ll leave you to it.” yunho says softly, and changmin makes a noncommittal noise in response just as yunho’s ducking out the door and telling himself that he shouldn’t take things to heart, really.

 

○

 

donghae greets yunho’s quiet, pining heart with big arms and a shiteating grin, all too ready to make fun of him.

they meet up with yunho’s other, other friends, on the beach, and it’s a big long lineage of ‘ _he was my dongsaeng’s weed dealer that somehow managed to land a date with my little back when i was repping for alpha phi, and now, they’re all down for the summer with somebodies unnie’s boyfriend’s football team and they’re really, really funny and somebody is bound to be hot enough to meet the standards of u-know yunho, seriously’_ and yunho hasn’t really understood anything donghae says, just nods tiredly and waves brightly when he sees ryeowook and jongwoon and jeongsu and the rest, and there’s a big chunk of lead where his insides should be.

“hyung!” ryeowook chirps, hanging off of jongwoon’s arm with varying degrees of clinginess. they all smell like lemon soju, and salt and sand and beach and he ruffles every dongsaeng’s hair he can find.

“where’s your puppy?” hyukjae asks, obviously amused, handing yunho a bottle of soju when they reach the icebox, sheltered underneath a gazebo. yunho sends hyukjae a curious look, for a second, before donghae laughs like an idiot, all chest, and jeongsu peers curiously over.

“i didn’t know you got a dog.” he says, brightly, and donghae keeps laughing. hyukjae joins in, and yunho manages a sarcastic smile.

“he’s my roommate,” yunho says, curt, as donghae collapses on one of the fold out chairs, pulling hyukjae with him. “and he’s studying for midterms.”

jeongsu fixes donghae and hyukjae with a look, before sitting down on another fold out chair. some kid’s bringing out jet skis now, and donghae pegs him as someone’s dongsaeng’s hyung’s girlfriend’s rich chinese ex, and yunho stops listening halfway through.

“he’s subleasing my apartment for the summer.” yunho explains, turning to jeongsu. “he’s just—“ _the puppyboy i tried to adopt and the one i wake up super early to make pancakes for and the one that cries when it thunders and the one that smells like green tea and saltwater_ “—just my dongsaeng.” yunho says, lamely. jeongsu nods, making an ‘ah’ noise, and donghae snorts.

“he’s like seven feet tall and yunho’s _attached_ to him.” donghae adds.

yunho swats him on the arm, scowling. “am _not_.” he says, lying through his teeth.

“sure hyung, sure. your pining ass says different.”

“i’m _not_ pining.” yunho says, but his voice cracks and donghae laughs at him like an idiot and he throws sand in hyukjae’s face by accident and they all end up pushing one another into the water when it gets too hot and laughing like they’re six again, or something.

 

○

 

yunho gets back after waking up on donghae’s sofa, because he’s a rich prissy ‘ _i live on the beach with my own villa_ ’ kinda asshole, and hyukjae throws him a water bottle and tells him to go home.

changmin’s fast asleep at the table, the same plate of pancakes on the bench beside him, only they’re all gone and his books are everywhere and there’s notes half ripped and pens on the floor and sniffling, changmin’s hair sticking to his forehead and yunho resists the urge to somehow reach over the kitchen and just…hold him.

he’s seen changmin grinning in the sunlight, a hand keeping the wind away from his bangs and he thinks that this changmin, sleep ridden with his glasses half on and his hair almost in every possible human direction - looks like home.

“hey.” he says, gently, still hungover, with a headache the size of seoul and a yawn half out of his lips, but still, content on putting changmin to bed.

changmin doesn’t move.

“hey.” yunho says again, this time, yawning, and he pushes a little on changmin’s too big shoulders and grins when he shifts.

“ _whdgdhdhmfffff._ ” changmin says, growling.

“come on, let’s get you to bed.” he says, because changmin without sleep is one thing but changmin without a proper bed to sleep in is worse, and he’s too hungover, to deal with this.

“where were you?” changmin wonders, somehow beginning to form coherent words as yunho stands him up and hoists him to his feet. lifeless, changmin mumbles some more nonsense, pawing at his eyes cutely and yunho would probably melt, if he had the ability.

“out.” he says, softly. “with friends.”

“oh.” changmin says, and yunho opens the closest door, which happens to be the door to his room, and leads changmin carefully to the futon. placing him down, yunho presses a hand to changmin’s forehead and tells him to get some rest. changmin sleep-frowns, now, apparently, and his eyebrows tighten as he curls up and screws his eyes closed.

yunho closes the door, then, and rests his head against it and tells himself that it’s probably, definitely irrational to get attached to people you’ve known for two months.

 

○

 

changmin emerges from yunho’s room no worse for wear. yunho, having crashed on the sofa, is still trying to get the cricks out of his neck.

“hyung.” changmin says, throat thick with sleep, and yunho beams at him with crinkled eyes.

“hey changminnie,” he greets. “pancakes and then a swim?”

changmin looks like he wants to say something, about yunho, about yesterday, about waking up in yunho’s bed with no explanation, but nothing comes. he gives a noncommittal nod in response, and collapses at the kitchen table, defeated.

 

○

 

changmin’s exam sits on a thursday, and yunho doesn’t abandon ship for donghae’s beach parties, again, much to the chagrin of hyukjae and the entourage of dongsaengs that take photos of him asleep on the sand and circulate them around the group chat for longer then necessary.

he’s an angry fireball of stress, as per usual, and yunho thinks they’ve come a little further then roommates when he’s bringing changmin his fourth expresso.

“you should go into exams well rested,” yunho chides, gently, “it helps your mind retain information.”

changmin growls, takes the cup of coffee and downs the whole fucking lot in under a few seconds. he wipes the back of his mouth and rips his textbook open, angry. yunho’s backing away slowly when changmin grabs him by the wrist.

“sit.” he says, sharp, and yunho somehow manages to slide onto the couch that changmin’s inhabiting and he’s all legs and textbooks strewn across the coffee table and yunho doesn’t know what he wants, until changmin lands back onto yunho’s chest with a thump and he huffs, brings up his book and keeps making beautiful, exhaustive notes.

yunho shifts.

brings an arm up, around changmin’s waist, and inhales.

 

○

 

yunho’s waiting for changmin at the bus stop after his exams are finished. changmin’s never giddy, except when he’s in the ocean, but he staggers out of the lecture hall on campus and catches site of yunho and his face just…goes…in obvious fondness and yunho grins back and changmin launches into the side of him, wrapping both arms around him for a second before he shoots back, bouncing on both feet.

“it’s _over_.” changmin breathes, unspeakably happy, when they’re on the bus, and he leans into yunho with obvious exhaustion and doesn’t even protest when yunho ruffles his hair.

 

○

 

“hyung.” changmin breathes, and he’s on the phone. “kyu and some guys wanna go clubbing-“ and he’s already finding his shoes and yunho looks up from his phone and thinks, _it’s been days since you slept._

“are you wearing _eyeliner_?” he blurts, instead.

changmin grins. “you coming, or what?”

 

○

 

yunho prefers beach parties. mainly because clubs, are, well. clubs.

all of changmin’s friends are guys from work or college, and they’re all tall and handsome and doting and they pull changmin into headlocks and poke at his torso and sling arms around yunho’s shoulders like they’re lifelong friends.

it’s pure coincidence that they happen upon donghae and the rest. they’re on their third club, wandering down the esplanade, tipsy and loose and most of changmin’s friends have either tapped out, found girls or just gotten lost along the way.

he’s walking beside changmin, who latches onto his arm and asks him “hey hyung aren’t they your friends-“ before waving wildly, and then donghae’s running across the road with a grin and somehow, somebody knows chanyeol who’s a lifeguard too and hyukjae says he swears he knows who kyuhyun deals weed from and they latch onto changmin and just…adopt him.

pulled onto the beach, yunho laughs when changmin trips over a sandcastle and kyuhyun’s pissing himself because this is the second fucking time man, and it’s snapchat videos of changmin falling over surfboards and chanyeol’s laugh seems to attract every known human on the beach.

“bonfire _party_ -“ somebody new says, and yunho doesn’t even know who’s voice is who’s, anymore. list of things never to do again, he thinks, drink.

instead, he stumbles, nearly falls off of his chair and latches onto the first sign of changmin he finds.

“yunho, get off.” donghae grumbles playfully. definitely not changmin. “your puppy ran off with baekhyun.”

yunho frowns. “well we gotta find them,” he says then, standing up. donghae looks incredulous and then fond all at once and he loops arms with yunho and then with hyukjae, who yunho didn’t even realise was still with him and they wander off into the darkness, past the cove in search of the bonfire.

most parties are illegal. drinking in public, for one, and the laws about fires on beaches and things probably don’t call for a bunch of stressed out college students to be laughing around a speaker set and a fire pit and the talk of somebody bringing their boat out and weed and whatever else and yunho’s so lost.

“need to find changmin.” he pants, when they push past the bushes and onto the cove, and donghae pats his arm sympathetically and sighs.

“there there. we’ll find your puppy.” he says, quietly, to yunho, and then proceeds to scream. “ _YO MY FRIEND LOST HIS PUPPY. HE’S LIKE SEVEN FOOT TALL. LIKE…LIGHT BROWN HAIR. NICE CHEEKBONES. HE’S CUTE DUDE. LIKE. REAL CUTE. SO YEAH. HELP US FIND THIS PUPPY_ —”   
and yunho fucking tackles him. “you stupid fuck—“ he says, unable to stop laughing and hiccuping and burying sand in donghae’s stupid face and ryeowook finds them, tangled around jongwoon again and he grins and helps yunho up and helps yunho kick donghae, which is great, and some kid called zitao, who’s attached to this kid called sehun says “dude we found your dog, man”

and changmin’s being pushed toward yunho with an ummf and they’re both, so, so drunk and nobody has working knees right now, so they just kinda fall into the sand, and changmin’s eyes are all crinkly, like the sun, as he laughs into yunho’s shoulder and pushes back against his biceps.

“sand in my nose—“ yunho whines, and changmin laughs even louder at that, when they tumble a bit down the sand dune and now it’s not just his nose, there’s sand in his ears—his eyes—fuck

“did you call me your _puppy_?” changmin asks, light, and yunho doesn’t have the guilt to lie about anything when he’s drunk, so.

“well, your ears deserve like…their own area code. and you pant when it gets too hot.” he points out, helpless.

changmin cracks up behind his hand and he’s so, _so drunk._

“hyung.” changmin breathes. “i really wanna kiss you. but there’s sand like all over your fucking mouth.” 

  
yunho makes the severe mistake of licking his lips. he shoves changmin away, choking, and changmin rolls over onto the sand and won’t stop wheezing with laughter. his shoulders shake in abject fucking amusement and yunho is over here, dying, as changmin laughs at him.

“hyung.” he says, barely speaking. he gives yunho a look, then throws his head in more laughter and gets to his knees.

“you’re like a chicken schnitzel.” changmin says, awfully fond, and yunho spits sand at him. changmin dodges, because of course he takes shots of voli far better then yunho ever will, and no amount of beer pong training will prepare yunho for getting shitfaced.

standing up, changmin pulls yunho by the hand, and they both sorta maybe get to the point where their knees don’t buckle. it’s an achievement in itself.

“where are you taking me?” yunho asks, because there’s sand in his shoes, in his shirt, in his soul — everywhere. changmin makes a soft noise of approval and suddenly there’s water in yunho’s shoes and it’s cold, it’s cold and summer is one thing but midnight swimming is a deathtrap.

“oh my god _no thanks_.” he says, desperate. changmin, who’s just so so strong, pulls. the sand squishes between his toes as he realises he’s still fully clothed and changmin’s pulling his fucking shirt off and somebody, probably kyuhyun, wolf whistles on the beach and changmin launches a fucking shoe at them and yunho nearly falls over, he’s laughing so damn hard.

“hold on, hold on.” he says, leaning on changmin while simultaneously pulling off his shoes and hoping he can find them in the morning, which is so, so unlikely, but yunho doesn’t care about statistics right now, because odds are he’s going to make out with changmin in the ocean as soon as he gets rid of these goddamn shoes.

they’re off, finally, and even though his jeans are beginning to stick to his legs and it’s freezing, changmin loops his wet arms around yunho’s neck and pulls him down once they’re past their waists.

the ocean is fucking freezing.

“gonna die—“ yunho whines, but changmin brings a thumb out of the water to push across yunho’s lips - ‘ _to get rid of the fucking sand_ ’ - and then he tangles his fingers in yunho’s hair and he has to lean down to kiss yunho because he’s like seven foot tall and yunho nearly just breaks.

changmin kisses with enough force that they nearly fall down, but they don’t somehow, and it’s not the time to talk about defying physics, but really. he smells like salt and soju and green tea and changmin whines when yunho has to wrap his arms around him for purchase, and another person wolf whistles, and yunho can feel changmin smile into the kiss.

he pulls back, for a second, catching his breath, and if yunho wasn’t so drunk, he’d probably pay attention to something other then the way changmin’s eyelashes looked against the moonlight.

“i’ve wanted to do that for so long.” changmin says, and when he kisses yunho again, he pulls them both into the sea, giggling. same, yunho wants to rasp, but changmin's already pulled him under.

 

○

 

they stagger home, shirtless and shoeless and soaking wet and making out halfway across the road. yunho can barely get the door open, but changmin growls, and turns the lock anyway, which makes no sense, because yunho _just_ turned it.

he doesn’t get to think. they haphazardly crash into everything in the kitchen, the living room. yunho nearly pulls them onto the sofa, but he loves himself, so he steers a course to the hallway and accidentally walks into the fan.

it falls, with a crash, and changmin finds this so, so funny. he curls his fingers into yunho’s back, because they’re not wearing shirts, yunho just realises, and laughs and laughs and laughs.

yunho pulls the laugh out of him with another kiss, and this time, they make it to the hallway. mission success.

 

○

 

yunho makes the resolute decision never to drink again. ever. _you’re too old for this_ , his body tells him, scolding, and he barely has the energy to move. light rips through the bedroom, the alarm clock telling yunho that it was 9:20am and that was like..fourteen hours too early.

so yunho pulls the covers back over he and the big lump of perpetual warmth that is changmin, and goes the fuck back to sleep.

most hangover mornings, he’d grab orange juice and paracetamol and leave a cute note for changmin to read while he woke up, but nothing exists beyond changmin’s mind pre-midday beyond pancakes.

and apparently, yunho.

a few hours later, and changmin’s burrowing into his chest, mumbling nonsense. yunho slides dead-tired arms around him and tips them over to face the wall.

“hfgfhh.” changmin says. and then. “don’t move.” and yunho splits a grin smiling into the side of changmin’s neck, breathing into his hair and submitting to the inane urge to remain asleep, like this, for the rest of his life.

 

○

 

four or so hours later, and coherency becomes a thing, apparently.

“oh my _god_ hyung.” changmin says, at both the 40 degree heatwave forecasted on the radio and the shattered fan by the hallway. “we’re not going to survive.”

  they’ve broke the only source of cooling in the house.

and yet changmin buries his head into yunho’s shoulder and whines, low and needy while they sit on the couch with the radio playing like a monotone, and yunho feeds changmin pieces of pancake with a pair of chopsticks.

they’ll survive.

maybe.

probably not.

**Author's Note:**

> • yeah so [this](https://soundcloud.com/chillanimebeats/sets/chillanimebeats) is the unofficial soundtrack®   
>  • inspired by nearly every single heliophilia photograph like wow…


End file.
